Newly elected Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said he rebuked Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, in a recent debate on Islam and the Middle East. Addressing the American-Ethiopian Muslim community in Virginia during his first trip to the United States on July 27, Ahmed said the Crown Prince offered “to teach them Islam” but he replied it would not be possible because the UAE had “lost the religion.” “We need to learn Arabic quickly, so we could better understand the religion and teach it to you, and return you to it,” the prime minister quoted himself as saying to the crown prince. A video showing Ahmed telling the anectode went viral on social media in Turkey on July 31. [Source: Hurriyat Daily News]

“(O Messenger!) Have you not seen those who claim to believe in the Book which has been revealed to you and in the Books revealed before you, and yet desire to submit their disputes to the judgement of taghut (the Satanic authorities who decide independently of the Law of Allah), whereas they had been asked to reject it. And Satan seeks to make them drift far away from the right way.” [Al Nisa: 60]

No Place for Nepotism in Saudi Arabia

When the government began rounding up businessmen and public figures for corruption and crimes against the state last November, it was like a blessing. No longer did the common man have to put up with the corrupt and underhand deals that deprived them of basic services. That was indeed a positive and encouraging move by the government, an act that was well received by much of the public who have endured years of suffering by certain sections of the civil sector under inefficient bureaucracy. Bureaucrats in many sectors may take heed that this proactive move is just the beginning. Ineffectual heads of public sector units have been put on notice that there is going to be a measure of accountability, and that they can no longer treat their sectors as a personal fiefdom to indulge in personal growth, riches and ambition at the expense of the public. And there are many other public service sectors that the government should be looking at. Transportation, communication, health and education come to mind. It goes without saying that the public service rendered in Saudi Arabia in this time and age is wasteful. Some of the public service sectors are infested with personal ambition and nepotism. And all of this at the expense of the common man whom these officials are supposed to serve. Treating government agencies as if they were the personal empire of a section of the bureaucrats must end now. Unless the needs of the public are met in accordance with established standards and norms, the heads of these sectors must be removed immediately. With Vision 2030 in mind, the government no longer has any patience for ineffectual performance. [Source: Gulf News].

How can one talk about nepotism without mentioning the efforts of Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to plunder and steal billions from his fellow countrymen? Corruption is rife at the top of the Saudi family, but how many are willing challenge MBS.

Imran Khan tells Britain to Return Looted Money

Imran Khan, the newly elected Pakistan PM, has said Britain must return looted money to his country which is allegedly being stashed by corrupt Pakistani politicians in London. The former international cricketer used his first meeting with British officials since his election win, to tell the UK that he wants to secure the return his nation’s laundered money, reports the Telegraph. In the meeting with Thomas Drew, the UK’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Khan said it was “our firm resolve to bring back to the country the money laundered to the UK.” Khan swept to power on a populist anti-corruption ticket and did not hold back in attacking Pakistan’s establishment. He has been scathing of the political class for siphoning off money from key public sector institutions and contracts before whittling away their wealth overseas. The issue of extracting wealth and sending it abroad has dominated Pakistan’s politics since the infamous Panama Papers leak that linked former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family to offshore companies and four high-end London flats. Sharif has subsequently been sentenced to 10 years in jail on corruption charges relating to the purchase of the London flats. Expensive property acquired through shell companies in weakly regulated jurisdictions has long been a favourite way to hide ill-gotten wealth for the likes of kleptocrats and mafia members. New UK anti-corruption legislation, created to target oligarchs and international criminals, could be utilized to freeze or seize property and assets if there is evidence it was bought with illegal or unidentified wealth. A spokesman for the British High Commission said: “Tackling corruption is a UK government priority and we will continue to work constructively with Pakistan on this issue.” [Source: Russia Today]

Imran Khan has again got his priorities wrong. Corrupt businessmen, politicians and generals have usurped billions of rupees over the years. A 50% wealth tax on these people as well as the top 1% in Pakistan will net the treasury billions of rupees. There is no need to waste time in chasing peanuts in Britain or borrowing from the IMF. But does Imran Khan possess the courage to tax his crony friends?

America uses Issue of Detained Pastor to Tighten the Leash on Erdogan in Syria

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, America’s primary ‘gangster’, to use North Korea’s description, is building pressure on Turkey’s Erdogan. According to the New York Times:

Declaring that “the clock had run out,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Turkey on Friday to free an American pastor imprisoned on espionage charges, in a case that had spurred United States to impose sanctions against two top Turkish government officials.

Mr. Pompeo discussed the case of the evangelical pastor, Andrew Brunson, with Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of a Southeast Asia security conference in Singapore, after previously pressing the case at least three times by phone.

“The Turks were well on notice that the clock had run out and that it was time for Pastor Brunson to be returned. I hope they’ll see this for what it is: a demonstration that we’re very serious,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters before the meeting, during the short flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

The US stance plays well to Trump’s evangelical vote base but this American pastor has been detained by Turkey since 2016; the real reason for exerting this pressure on Turkey at this time is the situation in Syria. The United States is playing a complex game in Syria because of its fear of entering the field with an army of its own, and its dependence therefore on the armies of others. Of course the US has tried to reduce its risks by using different countries’ forces for different regions of the country, but sometimes the US has to pull hard to stop a particular force from going beyond its remit. This last year has seen the US tighten the leash on Iran, and now the US has to pull back Erdogan, who lusts for the entire Kurdish region in Syria. According to a 25 June Reuters report:

Turkey will continue to “liberate Syrian lands” so that refugees can return to Syria safely, President Tayyip Erdogan said in an election victory speech on Monday.

It is expected that Erdogan will kneel once more in front of his American masters as he has done so many times in the past. According to a Reuters report on Friday:

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he expected a joint roadmap with the United States regarding the northern Syrian city of Manbij not to be impacted by tensions between the NATO allies.

Erdogan’s comments, in a speech in Ankara, came two days after Washington imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers over the trial of a U.S. pastor accused of backing terrorism. Turkey has said the sanctions were unacceptable.

Despite extensive intimidation, manipulation and control in favour of Imran Khan’s PTI both before the election as well as on polling day itself, the PTI has still been struggling to form the next government. According to Reuters:

Former cricket star Imran Khan’s party, which won Pakistan’s July 25 general election, said on Friday it had enough support in the National Assembly to form a government after more than a week of talks with other parties and independent politicians.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Movement for Justice, did better than expected to scoop up 16.86 million votes, trouncing the party of jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif, which finished second with 12.89 million.

But the 116 seats won by Khan’s lawmakers were not enough to give him a majority without coalition partners in the National Assembly, which has 342 seats including 70 set aside for women and members of religious minorities.

Fawad Chaudhry, a PTI spokesman, told reporters on Friday that the party believed it had the support of 180 lawmakers when it counted coalition partners and holders of reserved seats.

The entire world’s media has now been commenting on the Pakistan powerful military, generally referred to locally as the ‘establishment’, being the real reason for Imran Khan’s win. Of course, the establishment has always intervened in democratic elections in Pakistan but this time it had to use extreme measures as it had set itself the task of preventing both mainstream parties from taking power, the PML-N of Nawaz Sharif and the PPP of Asif Zardari, thus resorting to a third more marginal force, the PTI’s Imran Khan, as the above-quoted article goes on to indicate:

A European Union election monitoring team in its initial assessment described the election campaign as an unequal playing field, describing a “systematic effort” to undermine Sharif’s former ruling party, but said it was up to the people of Pakistan to decide on the vote’s legitimacy.

Pakistan’s democracy is no different than any other implemented anywhere in the world. It must be remembered that the term ‘representative democracy’ is actually a cover for oligarchy, the actual ruling system of the Western Capitalist ideology. True democracy, in which the entire population actually participates in governance, is a practical impossibility, a fantasy that has never been applied anywhere in the world. Even in ancient Athens, where the entire citizenry participated, the city had narrowly defined ‘citizen’ to constitute a minority of the Athenian population. And yet the thinkers of the day, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, still remained firmly opposed to democratic rule.

Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition fired more than two dozen missiles into this rebel-held Yemeni port city on Thursday, hitting the fish market, the entrance to the main hospital and a security compound in an attack that killed at least 30 people, medical workers said.

The missile strikes, which were an escalation of the conflict, came after a week of tensions in which Saudi Arabia accused its Yemeni adversaries, the Houthi rebels who occupy Al Hudaydah, of attacking a Saudi oil vessel in a Red Sea shipping lane.

At the same time, aid agencies sharpened criticism of the Saudi coalition over civilian suffering in the city, which the coalition has been threatening to invade for months.

Hours after the missile strikes, the United Nations special representative for Yemen briefed the Security Council in New York about a possible renewal of peace talks in the country, which the United Nations has declared the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Yemen is another example of a war against Muslims that the US has chosen to fight using others. And the purpose of attacking the Hodaydah port is to wage a new type of warfare in which the civilian population is starved of food and basic supplies, so that the country submits to American control.

War between competing powers is inevitable but in the millennia that Islam dominated world affairs, it was military forces alone that conducted war with each other, and that too in accordance with high standards of ethics and chivalry. Even the disbelieving European nations fighting amongst each other would adhere to these standards after being heavily impressed by the approach of Muslim armies during the Crusades. The invading Christians had massacred the people of Palestine but were stunned by honourable treatment accorded them by Salahuddin Ayyubi (r.a.), a rare historical fact that they continue to remember even today. But as soon as the Ottoman Islamic State fell from the position of the world’s leading power, and Western secular Capitalism began to dominate world affairs, the disbelieving West reverted to their former jahil (ignorant) ways, unleashing terror on civilian populations to cut the support to their military opponents. With Allah’s permission the re-established righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ will teach the world again about ethics, humanity and spiritualism even when in the battlefield.